


During These Trying Times

by Griselda_Gimpel



Category: Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Funeral Humor, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:21:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25173811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Griselda_Gimpel/pseuds/Griselda_Gimpel
Summary: After Vanyel's death, his four biological children get together for a dinner to remember him.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 32





	During These Trying Times

**Author's Note:**

> In my family, whenever there's a death, we always tell the funniest stories from the person's life.

Vanyel was dead. The King and the King’s Own were soon to follow. Jisa sat in the room she now shared with Prince Treven. She was trying to write a letter, and she was not succeeding.

Stefen had prompted it. After returning – alone – from the north, he’d happened to have a tear-filled private conversation with Jisa. “Van told me you were his daughter, too,” he’d said. “Did you know you had three half-siblings?” he’d asked. “Why no, Father Peacock had neglected to mention this,” she’d replied. Brightstar. Featherfire. And Arven.

Jisa had already finished the letter to Arven. That letter had been the easier of the two for three reasons. First, Jisa had an address, having gotten it from Vanyel’s sister. It turned out that Arven and her moms lived in Haven. With Brightstar and Featherfire, she knew only that they lived in k’Treva Vale. Secondly, Arven knew who Jisa was even if they had never met. With the twins, she was writing to them as a complete stranger. And finally, Arven already knew that Vanyel was dead. Jisa didn’t know if Brightstar and/or Featherfire had had any sort of relationship with Vanyel, but if they’d had, she knew that her letter was likely to be the first they’d heard of the news.

After a lot of false starts that she burned, she finally came up with something concise and honest. Afterward, she asked an unpartnered Companion – a young mare named Mara – to take the letter to them, and Mara agreed. Then she put it out of her mind. Either they would reply, or they wouldn’t.

The next she thought of them, it wasn’t because they sent a reply letter. It was because they showed up in person astride Mara. A page altered her, and she met them at the gate that blocked entry into the palace complex, where a member of the Guard was looking at them uncertainly.

“These two youngsters say that they know you,” the guard said when she got close. Then, in an undertone, he asked, “That Herald Vaneyl’s son?” She glanced at her two half-siblings. They dismounted from Mara, who trotted off after they all thanked her for her assistance. The twins were dressed in Valdemaran style and their hair had been dyed brown; she could see white at the roots. She knew that Hawkbrothers kept birds and wore feathers, but none were to be seen. Brightstar shifted so that the light caught his face, and Jisa saw the resemblance there that the guard had had noticed.

“Long story,” she whispered back. Then she slipped through the gate and addressed her two half-siblings. “I thought we could get a drink in town.”

“I’ll provide an escort,” the guard said.

“Please have them lag behind,” Jisa instructed. “We’d like some privacy.” They waited for the guard to be summoned, and then she, Brightstar, and Featherfire set off at a walk. “We’ve got one more half-sibling to pick up,” she told them. “Don’t worry, Arven lives close.” As they walked, Featherfire chatted with Jisa about how Mara had given them the Valdemaran language on the way, and Brightstar explained that their birds were in Companion’s Field.

Once they were a quartet rather than a trio, they found a reputable tavern and requested a private room, leaving their guard outside to keep watch. Jisa ordered bread and cheese for the table. Then the three teenagers ordered wine, and Jisa ordered unfermented grape juice for Arven. She was only eight, and her moms had only let her go out with her “cousin” and half-siblings if they took responsibility for her.

“So what’s this “cousin” thing about?” Brightstar asked after their food and drinks had arrived.

Jisa sighed. “King Randale’s my other dad,” she explained, “and everyone thinks I’m of his blood. They didn’t want it to get out that Father Royal is infertile. It probably doesn’t matter too much at this point, but there’s no reason to get a scandal going, either.” She looked at Brightstar and Featherfire. “No feathers?”

“We wanted to blend in,” Featherfire said.

“Hawkbrothers aren’t supposed to leave the nest,” Brightstar said.

“We might not exactly have gotten permission to come here,” Featherfire said with a grin.

“Hey! We left notes for our parents,” Brightstar protested. “And we’ll Gate back after our visit.”

“I had the idea about the clothes,” Featherfire said. “We bought them near the border. And Brightstar here was so magnanimous to do without his feathers for the trip. He must have _hundreds_ at this point.”

“I have fourteen,” Brightstar retorted and then ground his teeth. “Don’t mock just because you’re jealous.”

“I’m not jealous,” Featherfire began and then sobered. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t make jokes at a time like this. It’s just, I didn’t really know him. I got introduced to him the first time he came to visit when we were younger, but he was never a dad to me or anything. And I’m not saying I needed him to be! Uh, I don’t know how they do things here in Valdemar, but in the Vales, arrangements like my mom and Vanyel made aren’t uncommon. Helps keep the populations of the Vales healthy. She wanted a kid, and Vanyel provided. I just thought I’d come to support Brightstar.”

“It’s okay,” Jisa said. “Sometimes, if you don’t laugh, you cry.” She looked at Brightstar. “You knew him better?”

“Yeah, he taught me.” Then, as modestly as possible, he added, “I got all of his Gifts.”

Arven, who’d been listening attentively until this point, broke in, “So that’s why I don’t have any Gifts! _You_ took them all!”

“That must be hard,” Brightstar said sympathetically.

Arven laughed. “Actually, no. I was just teasing, really. I’d rather no Gifts than all of them, I promise. Maybe it’s not as hard out in the Vales, but here, Vanyel’s a big national hero. I’d never be able to fill his shoes!”

Brightstar winced. “Ouch. And, yeah. He did do a lot to help k’Treva Vale, too. Mind you, even if he hadn’t, my other two fathers are both these, have you heard?, amazing Adepts. Even without Vanyel, I’ve always had a lot to measure up to.”

“He does well, though,” Featherfire added sincerely.

“Not always,” Brightstar said. “I guess if we’re going to laugh, let me tell you about the time Wingbrother Vanyel tried to teach me how to handle my Firestarting ability.”

Featherfire started chuckling here, and Jisa and Arven looked at her inquisitively. “Sorry – I was able to hear Brightstar getting chewed out from all the way across the Vale.”

Brightstar gave her a look of mock annoyance. “Let me tell it, will you? Okay, so Wingbrother Vanyel and I were by one of the pools fed by a cold spring. I’d already mastered Fetching on his previous visit, and Firestarting’s really similar to that, so I caught on real quick. Which would have been fine, ‘cept that my other fathers would. Not. Shut. Up. Father Starwind kept saying stuff like, ‘He lit that leaf on fire!’ and then Father Moondance would grab Father Starwind’s arm and add, ‘Our little boy is growing into such a Gifted young man.’ It was really embarrassing.”

“It took time for Brightstar to grow into his conceitedness,” Featherfire added in a stage whisper. Brightstar grabbed an uneaten bread roll and chucked it at her, but she caught it and took a bite out of it.

“As I was saying,” Brightstar continued, “it was embarrassing. And it made it hard to concentrate. So when Wingbrother Vanyel instructed me to light a stone on fire, I couldn’t do it. That made me get upset – like I said, I have a lot to measure up to – so I decided to Gate out of there.”

“Oh no,” Jisa said, her eyes going wide.

“What?” Arven demanded.

“Father Peacock is-” Jisa began and then stopped. She swallowed a lump in her throat before continuing, “Father Peacock was sensitive to Gate energies. Something with what happened to him when he was younger, when he got his powers. It caused him pain.”

“I knocked him out cold,” Brightstar lamented. “Naturally, this freaked little me out and-” He grinned sheepishly.

“Go on,” Featherfire goaded him.

“I lit the pool on fire. Just, all the water, up in smoke. Both my dads started scolding me at that point. I hadn’t been properly taught Gating yet; I’d just picked it up by watching the older mages. I realize now that I had just scared them – Gating improperly can be very dangerous – but at the time I thought they were angry with me. Anyway, while they finished shutting down the Gate, Yfandes gave me a talking to, as well. The only one who didn’t chastise me was Wingbrother Vanyel, after he stopped being unconscious, that is. I think he saw that I’d gotten enough by that point.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him,” Jisa said fondly.

“I’ve got a Vanyel story, too,” Arven piped up.

“You knew him?” Brightstar asked.

Arven shook her head. “Not really. I used to watch him from the window when he rode past, but I only met him once, when I was really young. I don’t remember it, but Mom 1 and Mom A said that he came by to test me for Gifts. That’s how I know I don’t have any.”

“So what’s your story?” Featherfire asked encouragingly.

“It’s the story of my conception,” Arven said proudly.

“Arven!” Jisa exclaimed. “How in the world?”

Arven grinned mischievously. “My moms have a rule that if I ever have a question about anything, they’ll answer it honestly and not sprout inanities about how I’m too young.” She rolled her eyes. “They left out some details, obviously.”

“So what did they tell you?” Brightstar asked.

“Well, as I’ve mentioned, I’ve got two moms, and they don’t like men at all. But they wanted a kid, so Captain Lissa – that’s our Aunt Lissa, I suppose – introduced them to Herald Vanyel. Mom 1 decided that she would be the one who actually carried the pregnancy – that’s me – but Mom A was there for moral support. Mom 1 says that she was still really uncomfortable about having a man look at her when she didn’t have any clothes on, even if Vanyel didn’t like women any more than she liked men. So Mom A suggested that Vanyel wear a blindfold.”

There were chokes and chuckles from Arven’s half-siblings. “And he went along with that?” Brightstar asked in morbid fascination.

“He did,” Arven said. “My moms said that he said that he was doing this as a service to them and if him wearing a blindfold made them more comfortable, then he’d be happy to oblige them.” Arven paused and took a deep breath. “Herald Vanyel stubbed three of his toes and hit his head on the headboard. Mom A says she felt bad afterward, and Mom 1 said that she felt bad for him but also it was funny enough – here’s this great Herald-Mage and he’s bumbling around naked like a new born kitten – that she was actually able to relax. So that’s my Vanyel story.”

“So we were all conceived as favors,” Brightstar remarked.

“I wish I’d been able to get to know him more,” Arven said. “Not- some of the parents of the other kids act all patronizing concern with me, as if there’s some great lack in my life because I don’t have a dad. Which is ridiculous because I have two amazing moms who love me very much. But I wouldn’t have minded getting to know him better, just because he was such a good person.”

“Like an uncle,” Jisa said. “That’s what I got with him, unless we were alone.”

“I wish we could have made the funeral,” Brightstar said.

“There wasn’t one.”

“What?”

“Nothing to bury,” Jisa said. “We really should have had one anyway, but no one arranged it. Stefen’s been a mess. His parents – our grandparents, unfortunately – have been too busy making sure they project the right image of Grieving. I got our sire’s Empathy, so I know. And Father Royal’s- my other dad’s- he’s-“

“The king is dying,” Arven put in when Jisa teared up too much to speak.

“Oh, Goddess!” Featherfire swore. “That’s why everyone was so gloomy when we were coming in, weren’t they?”

Jisa struggled to get a hold of herself. “Mom’s going to follow him. She’s a Healer. She’s not letting him go without a fight, and it’s taking everything from her.”

“Oh no!” Brightstar said. “Oh, Jisa, I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks,” Jisa said. “It’s- Father Royal’s been sick for a while. I’ve been preparing myself for it, I guess? But I thought maybe mom- And I wasn’t expecting Father Peacock to- It’s just been a lot, is all. But I’m glad you guys came. I’m glad we got to have this dinner.”

Arven picked up her wine glass filled with unfermented grape juice. “To Vanyel,” she toasted.

“To Vanyel!” the other three echoed, and the clink of glass against glass covered the sound of falling tears.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this fan fic finds you and your loved ones in good health and that we are all able to get through this crisis.


End file.
